Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

Brooksie! I posted something some time ago about avatars and atavars under the impression that a latter-day avatar was some proxy creature which engaged in a simulated relationship, usually violent, with other illusions in a computer game. Now you tell me it’s really just a little photograph of yourself? Or is that someone else?
I do think you deserve recognition for being the first on this forum to stick your face next to your thoughts, but so far we’ve been building little pictures of one another through our words alone and I hope you’ll forgive those like myself who prefer it that way.

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

Peter,

You are correct. An avatar is usually a substitute or representation of oneself; however, as the gatekeeper of an online group that involves actual f2f meetings, I tire of people posting pics of their black labs and Homer Simpson. That is indeed a (recent) pixelated version of me, and since I am in pixels, couldn’t that then be an avatar? ;)

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

I’m delighted to be able to animate this amiable thread. Like many of you, I’m INFP. I teach biology at a French-speaking university in Quebec. Grew up in Alberta, where like Pat I was a good speller. Both parents were raised on the farm; my mother became a school teacher and my father drove trains. I was a stickler for correct use of English until I had to learn a new language, which for me was French at an age that made learning difficult.

I’ve since learned enough Spanish to get by in Catalunya, and then lost that by spending a wonderful year in Portuguese in Brazil. Ironically, I now find myself obliged to encourage the improvement of the usage of French among my francophone students, but I do not discourage the adoption of anglicisms.

I have a daughter I dote on. And a sweet Italo-Brazilian girlfriend who speaks 6 languages and read Homer in ancient Greek.

I’m grateful to everyone who has contributed to this board; for me it is a treasure-house of insight, amusement. amazement and apprenticeship. I aspire to the judgment and grace of your posts.

Oh, by the way, my name is Bird. I chose burred on the ‘spur of the moment’ (pardon the unintentional pun) but it’s now woven into the site and I guess I’ll stick with it.

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

I’m another physics / engineering type. I don’t seem to have time to be a regular poster here, but I still look for eggcorns and other misuses of the language. I work in a field where a large number of my peers have English as their second language, which definitely increases the number of interesting mistakes I hear.

I have a Spanish-speaking grandmother, I studied French in high school and a little Japanese in college.

I took the Meyers-Briggs in high school and came out an INTJ. I took it more recently and was very close to the border on all axes but classified as an ENFP. I don’t THINK I’ve had a total personality transplant since high school (although I’ll admit to having adapted better socially) so I tend to find the test kind of annoying.

Hobbies include reading voraciously, playing viola sporadically, birding opportunistically, and raising a 2-year-old.

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

I’m a TEFL teacher originally from the UK and I’ve been in Spain for twenty years. Chomsky said something about observers of a language being part of it but distanced from it.

I came to this forum from the language log. Like others I’m from a family of readers, punsters and amateur linguists. Another important aspect, I believe, is my liking from an early age for doing rebusses(rebuses, rebi?) and then cryptic crosswords, but I find I need to brainstorm with another person to finish them. My father spoke Welsh although I don’t, and I’ve forgotten most of my French, German and Latin.

One thing I’ve noticed about TEFL teachers is after a while we get very blasphemous, obscene and scatological. We control our output so much of the time in class that when we are with each other we use the time to have a good swear and make off-colour puns; this might partly explain my unfortunate tendency to see innuendo in everything.

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

So you swear like a Spaniard now, Juan. Or something like that – I don’t actually know how the Spanish cast imprecations. Like other Catholic countries, I would guess that religious icons figure heavily there, and bodily functions are more mundane. I did learn some potent Catalan expressions while living north of Barecelona. The Catalans up the ante by compounding the sacred and the profane. Bracing.

As for an “unfortunate tendency to see innuendo in everything”, this is the spice of life, no? To paraphrase Peter (I haven’t looked up exactly what he said so colourfully), here in the forum, we have never shrunk from forays into the never regions.

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

I just took the Meyers-Briggs and came out ENFJ, but I have no idea whether the test has any validity, as I haven’t looked into the research behind it. Having had some training in psychotherapy and the basics of psychological testing on my way to getting my MA in Counseling, I’m fairly skeptical of psychological testing in general; so much in that field is crapola.
Born and raised in Michigan, but have been in Santa Rosa, California for a number of years now. My work has been mostly in mental health/human services.
I took French in high school, but never got anywhere near fluent. I am a bit of a wordsmith, with good natural writing/editing/proofreading skills. I have won small awards for my poetry (both written and slam performance), my short fiction, my online column on critical thinking (The Gospel According to Dixon—check it out), and my short humor writing. RE: that last category, I’m an editor at OEDILF (the Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form), and I get published in the Washington Post’s weekly Style Invitational contest on an average of about twice monthly—mostly just honorable mentions, but it’s fun and it keeps the mind supple. I think many eggcornistas would enjoy the wordplay in the Style Invitational.
Other interests: Too damn many! Most arts and sciences. Philosophy. People. Social criticism—some see me as a curmudgeon. Public speaking. I enjoy my collections of comic books and unusual music. And I’m wild about women. Woo woo!

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

ENFJ – you and booboo. I think Myers-Briggs and tests of that elk are a fun parlour game. You answer a whole bunch of questions and they tell you what you just said. Sometimes it’s useful to state the obvious. Looking at your blog, I’d have to say that gregarious Idealist-Teacher-Organizer might be a shoe size you’d feel comfortable in, Dixon. Maybe if “Lover of Musicke No One Else Can Stand” were thrown in. I know that last bit fits me pretty well, too.

Re: Hmm, wasn't quite sure where to fit this - feels like a suggestion...

Dixon Wragg wrote:

Actually, David, your description of me is pretty much spot on. I’m curious about exactly what musical artists or types you like. We may like some of the same stuff.

light floats down day river on a red raft of blood
night blocks out da heavens like a big black shiny bug
its hard soft shell shining white in one spot well
it’s a hard place that i’m living but i’m doing well well